Treatment for Fentanyl Addiction

Fentanyl is a powerful opioid narcotic, which is mostly utilized to manage extremely severe and chronic pain. When it is consumed or injected, it produces an intense feeling of pleasure that affects the user’s mood and behaviour. That is why it is usually abused by the recreational users. The treatment for fentanyl addiction becomes compulsory even if a recreational user has abused it even for a considerably short duration and wishes to quit using it. A complete fentanyl rehab program encourages a healthy life free from drugs. Fentanyl addiction treatment aims to make it easier to handle the physical side effects of quitting the use of fentanyl during the initial stage of treatment with the help of fentanyl detox and medicinal treatment.

Fentanyl is legally available in oral and injectable form and in transdermal patches. Individuals addicted to fentanyl mostly use to take fentanyl through injection. Some addicted individuals obtain fentanyl gel or solution from transdermal patches and products containing oral fentanyl and consume it. Doctors usually reserve fentanyl for such patients whose pain cannot be controlled with the less effecting painkillers. Fentanyl is highly regulated but abusers are able to get fentanyl in almost all forms from the illegal street drug dealers.

The biological and chemical mechanism of fentanyl that results in the relief from excruciating pain is also the same mechanism that becomes the reason for the abuse of this drug by the addicts. The clinical and recreational effects of fentanyl in addition with its capability of instigating withdrawal symptoms, which calls for the treatment for fentanyl addiction, are caused because of the fact that it acts as an agent for the release of endorphins. When the human body is under the influence of stress, endorphins provide with a comforting feeling of pleasure. For the reason that human body is not capable of producing sufficient level of endorphins on its own to deal with intense pain, fentanyl is used to activate a quick release of large amount of endorphins, which helps in getting rid of the pain. When it comes to the recreational use of fentanyl by addicts, there is no pain to cure. As a result, addicts experience a strong emotion of pleasure as soon as fentanyl penetrates into the bloodstream and reaches the brain. This condition is what addicts meant when they use the term, “getting high”. In the technical terms, such penetrating experience of joy and pleasure is identified as “euphoria”.

Physical addiction of fentanyl calls for the proper treatment for the reason that even an addict with the determination to quit abusing fentanyl without proper medication will suffer from side effects, which will result from the abrupt decrease in endorphin levels in the body when the addicted individual suddenly quits the use of fentanyl.